Rubus phoenicolasius - Japanese wineberry

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Grow them up against a fence or along a post and wires to create garden divisions

Lucy Summers
- Greenfingers Guides

Position: full sun

Soil: fertile, well-drained soil

Rate of growth: fast-growing

Other features: softly hairy, bare stems look good in winter

Hardiness: fully hardy

Still quite rare here in the UK, but hopefully that will all change quite soon. These incredibly sweet, orange red to dark red berries are delicious if picked and eaten straight from the bush when they ripen in August, or can be cooked up in the same way as you would raspberries (which they are closely related to). They come on a large, deciduous bush that is easy to grow, although you will get the best fruit when it is trained against a sunny, south-facing wall or fence.

Garden care: Prepare the planting area well, removing all perennial weeds and adding plenty of well-rotted garden compost or manure and plant at 45cm intervals. The fruit is produced on two year old canes, the stems that grow this year, should go on to produce fruit next year. Ideally you should tie the canes onto wires and at the end of the picking season cut those that have produced fruit back to their base and then tie on the new canes.

There are many reasons why the plant is rare here in the UK!The worst feature of the plant is the thorns. They are so sharp, they come through my gardening gloves, and there have been many occasions when the thorns lodged into my hand when I tried to pick berries without gloves.The berries are few and far between. I'm writing this in August and though there are clusters of berries, they are not as full as the photos show on the web page.Taste wise, they are just ok. They reminded me of pomegranate, but they are not exceptional.It is a highly invasive plant.I honestly can't think of any redeeming features. Buy a raspberry instead.

Your Gardening Experience:

Experienced

Primary use:

Personal

Bottom LineNo, I would not recommend this to a friend

Crocus response:Thanks for your feedback - although I was sorry to hear that you are less than thrilled with your plant.

It is fair to say that the stems are prickly, but the lack of fruit may be attributed to either not enough sun or fertiliser, or the plant not being old enough. I am not sure when you planted yours, but the fruit is produced on two year old canes, so the stems that have grown this year, should go on to produce fruit next year. With that in mind, you may get a larger crop next year.

If so, click on the button and fill in the box below. We will post the question on the website, together with your alias (bunnykins, digger1, plantdotty etc etc) and where you are from (Sunningdale/Glasgow etc). We'll also post the answer to your question!

Hello There, All our fruit is virus free, but certificates are only issued when plants cross borders. We only deliver to mainland UK, so we do not have certificates, but keep in mind that all our hardy plants are also covered by a 1 year guarantee.